EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson
The Frontiers
Calls for “Holistic Approach”
of Environmental
to Environmental Challenges
Economics
S
E
tephen L. Johnson, U.S. Environ- Among them, he listed ensuring a
mental Protection Agency (EPA) safe, clean, and sustainable water supply, greater energy security, and preAdministrator, shared his perserving biodiversity.
spective on the state of the environHe also noted that these challenges
ment at a Policy Leadership Forum at
RFF in April. Johnson is the first career are different from those the world
faced a generation ago and likewise
employee to assume the top position
must be approached differently.
at EPA.
“Addressing the
During his talk, Johnmultidimensional envison highlighted progress
ronmental challenges of
the United States has
the 21st century requires
made on environmental
protection in recent
a more holistic mindset,
years, remarking that
one that looks beyond
“our air, our water, and
today and toward achievour land are cleaner toing a truly sustainable
day than they were a gensolution for tomorrow.”
eration ago.” He noted,
The public remarks
however, that there is
were Johnson’s first
work still to be done.
since the Supreme
Stephen L. Johnson
“I believe America is
Court ruled that EPA has
moving into a new phase of environthe authority to regulate greenhouse
mental protection,” he said, “evolving
gas emissions from automobiles.
from pollution control to pollution
When asked what the response to the
prevention to sustainability.”
ruling would be, Johnson replied “We
Johnson laid out challenges facing
are actively reviewing the Supreme
the United States and the greater
Court decision . . . and considering our
global community as they move forward. options. Stay tuned.” ■
“I believe America is moving into a new
phase of environmental protection . . .
evolving from pollution control to pollution
prevention to sustainability.”
4
xtending its role as a proponent
of leading-edge thinking on environmental policy, RFF, with
the support of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s National Center
for Environmental Economics, convened a conference in February to explore the frontiers of environmental
economics.
The conference was structured
around nine papers—on topics ranging
from applying virtual experiments to
policymaking to integrating economics
and biology to inform fisheries management—that were selected out of
more than 175 submissions. These papers advance theoretical and empirical
methods in environmental and resource economics and illustrate how
expanding the research frontier can inform the design and evaluation of environmental policy in the future.
Provocative presentations and intense discussion gave rise to several
common themes and concerns during
the two-day conference. Much of the
work presented was multidisciplinary,
drawing from economics as well as biology, computer science, ecology, neuroscience, physics, and psychology.
As an example, work on models of
interactions between natural resources
and population growth and production
brought together researchers from the
departments of economics and physics
at Ohio State University. Presenter
Elena Irwin noted that models of
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